Diversity and inclusion have been major game debates over the last decade, and for good reason. Most people play, talk about it, and make games more than ever, and everyone has strong feelings about what they are playing, or if they can play at all. And of course, those conversations come with their own exclusion.
The frustrating thing is that discussions about wheelchair representation in sports often feel like a tool, compared to other slimming axes. It is very common to talk about what sports are or not is played for those with disabilities rather than the content of the games themselves or what they say about people with disabilities. But both conversations are very important.
With that in mind, as 2010 draws to a close, it is worth taking a look back at some of the games that showcase their handicaps, in both positive, but often negative, ways.
Too bad
It's noticeable that it's "bad," I don't mean that the game is bad. I enjoyed almost all the games listed here. These notes are meant to be a part of the discussion, not a condemnation. And neither of these lists are meant to be complete; they are merely intended to show some aspects of the representation of people with disabilities in sport.
Life Is Wonderful
The Dontnods Life Is Wonderful he has done many good things. The linear relationship between Max and Chloe at the heart of the game resonated with many people, and their narratives include dialogues or depictions of torture, beating and suicide that were provocative but didn't feel as strong as a result.
But the way the creative team handles handicap and mental health has been a terrible scent.
For much of the game, the main antagonist is Nathan Prescott, a rich and violent kid who sometimes kills even the other characters in the game.
It turns out that Nathan is extremely mentally ill and given severe schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Instead of being used to help the audience sympathize with Nathan, a quick way to convey the basic idea that this brother is definitely a dangerous scholar.
It turns out that he's not the main antagonist of the series, but by that point, the mental health problem picture has already been used to paint him as vulnerable and worse than just a teenage boy battling his mental health. But the issues are presented as linked, though the fact that those with mental health problems are more likely to be victims of violence than their attackers.
"Most of the mentally ill people are non-violent and only 3% to 5% of the violence can be attributed to people with severe mental illness," MentalHealth.gov says. "In fact, mentally ill people are 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than most people."
Pop culture likes to link mental health with violence, but in doing so it often creates a belief in the connection between the two that is not in real life.
Best … ish
These are games that do some things well, while still falling into some well-known traps when it comes to portraying disabled characters in their stories. Let's get in.
Insulted: External Death
The Refined series & # 39; Billie Lurk is a great character. A person who also has a troubled history, he works in contrast to the typical political struggles throughout the series, so it was a thrill when he was finally offered the main center Insulted: External Death, a vertical expansion of Purified 2.
On the other hand, Billie Lurk is a black woman, struggling, paralyzed, and her harmony makes sense with her role within the game's creation. In a series that focused on world domination, celebrity and the rich, Billie represented everyone else, and showed how they were cast aside by the magical tricks of the overthrow. Arkane filed a line, black, paralyzed female on the cover of the latest game in the Flagship series. That's a great story, on the face of it.
And right now I can't help but feel that External Death betrayed Billie's status as a crippled character. In Purified 2, a motion-based delivery would, if played in a certain way, bring Billie's arm and eye. It's just one effect of many in those sentences, and it's very easy to miss, which requires you to save a bit of character at some point in an already confusing novel. However it is considered a canon effect on External Death, meaning Billie starts the game with his eye and arm.
The game then brutally and violently took out Billie's eye and arm and for what looks like a great value, and the effect of body tremor that can be prevented by making him start the game is crippled, and is instead replaced with magical skills that give him new abilities.
In fact, the disabled character & # 39; s organized & # 39; over time, it is painfully disabled again, and then “fixed ”again before it is considered effective Refined the protagonist. There is no reason that Billie could not be so talented and powerful about her disability – this is a magical world, after all – but Arkane decided she needed all four limbs and all eyes worked perfectly to become a hero.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The New Order is important because it gave us not one, but two deformed characters in its central center. Max Hass and Caroline Becker.
Hassi suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child and has since been removed most of his head, leaving him with a noticeable scalp on his head. In the meantime, Becker uses a wheelchair to get around, while being the closest thing to a group to a respected leader.
Well, it's really nice to see people with disabilities play such an important role Wolfenstein & # 39; s a strong anti-Nazi message, as the suffering of disabled people is replaced by the Nazis a feature often misplaced in history
Disabled people were one of the Nazi persecuted groups, and disability in general was seen as a burden that weakened Germany. From 1933 on, long before the second world war began, sterilization plans the Nazi regime came to power. Six years later, in 1939, T4 system it was started, and sterilization turned into mass murder by people with gassing or lethal injection. It is believed that 275,000 disabled people were killed by the Nazis.
Wolfenstein he would just say "Nazis are bad, let's shoot it" and that would be a valid philosophy in this game. But MachineHead Games managed to give me great catharsis, and I'm sure many others, by showing those who tend to forget history in the real world came together to destroy the Nazi Nazi empire.
However Max Hass falls into the same offensive line as characters like Lenny's Of Mice and Males or Hodor from Song of Snow and FireA: It is mentally disabled, but it has superhuman potential, and it is useful as workers or unskilled workers. Hasas & # 39; s power is why he continues to find a place in the group, and his character enters the idea that some disabled people somehow create unselfish, but almost unimaginable, people.
On the other hand, Becker is given a Wolfenstein It's sort of an Iron Man suit that transforms him into a super cybernetic weapon. Games, and animation within games, are endless possibilities, but the only way MachineHead games could look like Becker working on a team in battle was to adjust his legs professionally and make him jump and fly. Both of these characters feel like a step in the right direction, and a lost opportunity.
Great
These are the handicaps in my favorite video games, and they help to show the way forward for everyone. This is a way to do it right.
Borderlands 2
I must say how good the Borderlands series is in its crippled stand.
The first game included T.K. Baha, my fav orite character. A blind man who used his strengths and disabilities to use his disabilities to make people uncomfortable by making fun of them, passing on the compassion that was imposed upon him as a person with a disability? That's fine. After that he was killed and strangled, of course. Because games have a history of introducing disabled characters, then finding a way to "fix them," or kill them after disguising them as a way to shock the player.
However Borderlands 2 introduced Sir Alistair Hammerlock. Hammerlock is a cyborg – his arm, leg and eye were all lost in various hunting escapes – but he is also a gay-colored man who has a real love affair with every sport he has. What else, Hammerlock you are prospering across the Borderlands games.
He is not killed or tortured like such a Borderlands the characters are there, and he has an improved and varied life. She has exes, grudges, family problems, and finds a new boyfriend in between Borderlands 3. Ait's all done with the level of detail and respect that so many others have in the Borderlands cast, not to mention how rare this is in any kind of pop culture, even today.
Borderlands still not my cup of tea, but I love Hammerlock and all he represents. You become a normal person, and a normal story. At least as usual as things get into the Borderlands franchise
Watch Dogs 2
The case underneath Watch Dogs 2 it was packed with a variety of well-cared for items. While the game is best known for its exploration of race and law enforcement, it also has questions about class and, critically, disability. And he believes better that the two issues are linked more closely than most games would like to admit.
Josh is a quiet, focused shooter who is finally diagnosed with autism. Usually, this would be a close-up of the eye, as it would be another example of a strange computer symbol. In turn, Watch Dogs 2 treats Josh with care and attention to detail that many games, and pop culture in general, can learn from.
Josh feels like an autistic character written by someone with autism awareness. He is not labeled as one-sided, annoyingly mad, or as shy as some of the characters in fictional storytelling tend to be. Instead he is a quiet, worried young man who takes comfort in things he knows and loves, and the game accepts that.
Josh is an integral part of the team, and his friends respect and understand his writings. He is not played as a joke; he is another full-time person under the auspices of Blume Corporation.
Things Can Be Better
Presentation is by no means exhaustive and ends all installations, however it is a large part of it. All the adjustable controls or well-made subtitles around the world won't help people with disabilities feel included when they're not on screen.
This is not a matter of "forcing diversity," as some players might argue, but the problem of showing the world what it really is, a complete range of human experience, limitations, and triumphs. There is no drama without difficulty, and the crippled characters presented as opportunities are an opportunity to add both to the storyline.
Not only do we need writers to know more about how to present people with disabilities, we also need more disabled people who write our stories, and we need publishers and developers to take the opportunity. The best defense in classic games is a creative team filled with people with a wide variety of live experiences that can bring you to the art of making games.
People with disabilities deserve to be represented, and we deserve to have a seat at the table of diversity and inclusion. A decade is included for us, but, with a few adjustments, the next decade may be even better.
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